Current fellows

It is with great sadness that all staff at the African Leadership Centre at King’s College London, along with those at our sister-centre in Nairobi, Kenya, morns the loss of Dr Abdul Raufu Mustapha. Dr Mustapha, professor of African Politics at Oxford University, died on Tuesday 8th August 2017 after a battle with stomach cancer.

Professor Mustapha was a great friend and colleague of the ALC for many years. Apart from following with interest all our activities, he would often phone the leadership of the ALC to offer his encouragements and support. He also assisted in examining some of our Ph.D. students, while many of our students and Fellows who never met him physically knew him through his excellent and critical research on African ethnicity, democratisation and rural societies, amongst others.

Although always calm in his outward disposition, he was tough and had the strength of character and resilience to bear the last few months of his illness with a most admirable sense of self-dignity and endurance. Professor Mustapha was a great human being who was an endearingly compassionate and very genuine person to all who knew him. He was also a truly warm, kind, caring and family loving person who spared all his energy and time in helping people as if they were part of his extended family. He was a true and sincere African, a captivating and courageous scholar, a trustworthy friend and a genial host. Professor Mustapha’s constant loyalty to friends and colleagues, the support on which they could always rely, his extreme modesty, courtesy and amazing sense of humour, are qualities we at the ALC will surely miss. Indeed, human beings don’t come in better shapes as did the late Raufu Mustapha.

Professor Mustapha was survived by his wife, Kate, and two children, Asma’u and Seyi, and will be sadly missed by his large and supportive family as well as students and colleagues who worked with him and knew him well. We sincerely extend our deep commiseration to Kate, the children and his colleagues at Oxford.

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